The Moon is Quite Beautiful Tonight

Although Zhao Dieyi deeply sympathized with Su Qinghan's plight, she did not dare lightly provoke Jiang Lan at present. There was nothing she could do to help, and she left with her grandfather after bidding farewell.

The banquet ended, and Su Qinghan had finally endured through it. She let out a long breath of relief.

Right now, she only wanted to return home, wash herself thoroughly, and scrub every inch of her body clean.

If she could, she would have loved to chop off Jiang Lan's hand. From childhood until now, she had never suffered such humiliation and molestation as she had today.

However, just as she was about to leave the residence with Su Changkong and the others—

Jiang Lan's leisurely voice, seemingly laced with a smile, suddenly rang out behind her, bringing Su Qinghan's steps to an abrupt halt.

"The moonlight is rather lovely tonight. I wonder if Miss Qinghan has the time to admire it with me?"

Su Qinghan's head buzzed. A trace of pallor spread across her flawless, jade-like face.

She had thought that after yielding and obeying him at the banquet, Jiang Lan would let her go.

But upon hearing those words, she suddenly realized just how laughable and naive she had been...

His plot against Lin Fan and his threats to force her submission—there was no conflict at all between those two things.

The pallor on Su Qinghan's face deepened. Her jade-like hands clenched tightly, and her entire body trembled faintly.

There was even a look of utter resolve in her cold eyes, as though she were prepared to die.

She would rather sever her own heart meridians and die than have her chastity defiled. Everything she had endured today was already the greatest concession she could possibly make...

Though Su Qingyao was not particularly quick-witted, she could vaguely guess what Jiang Lan meant. Admiring the moon in the middle of the night, alone together—a man and a woman?

Her little face instantly turned deathly pale. Looking at her sister, her eyes were filled with worry and fear. Her small hand clutched tightly at Su Qinghan's sleeve, terrified that she would agree.

"Big Sister..." She shook her head over and over, like a rattle-drum.

"Qinghan..."

Su Changkong's expression turned incomparably grim. His fists clenched tight, veins bulging.

He had seen every little thing Jiang Lan had done to Su Qinghan at the banquet.

As her father, he was naturally furious. But the Su Family was too weak; before a colossal existence like the Prime Minister's Manor, they did not even count as ants.

From the beginning, he had indeed entertained thoughts of climbing a high branch. But after seeing Jiang Lan's casual manner, as though he were merely toying with a plaything, he suddenly understood that the high branch had only ever been his own wishful thinking.

In their eyes, even if a sparrow climbed onto a high branch, it would still forever be a sparrow—a toy, something that could never become a phoenix...

No matter how cowardly or weak Su Changkong was, he could not possibly force his own daughter into a pit of fire.

At that moment, he looked at Su Qinghan and spoke firmly.

"Qinghan, you don't have to force yourself. Though the Su Family is weak, we are not for others to knead and pinch as they please..."

"Father, take Qingyao home first. I'll be back soon."

Before he could finish, Su Qinghan interrupted him.

She gently shook her head. The expression in her cold, star-like eyes became utterly calm.

Su Changkong froze, unable to understand what Su Qinghan meant.

But Su Qinghan had no intention of explaining further. She pulled free of the skirt sleeve her younger sister had clutched so tightly, then turned and walked toward the pavilion within the residence.

Wine had already been set out there anew.

Jiang Lan stood by the pavilion railing, dressed in flowing White Robes, tall and straight, wiping his hands with a clean silk handkerchief.

Moonlight poured down like scattered flakes of white snow across the ground. Mist rose from the pondside, hazy and indistinct, lending him an air of otherworldly refinement.

"The moonlight tonight truly is lovely."

Su Qinghan's cool voice sounded behind him, remarkably calm, without any of the anger, resentment, humiliation, or other emotions he had expected.

Jiang Lan seemed slightly surprised. Turning back, he smiled faintly. "I thought you wouldn't come."

"Young Master Jiang invited me. How would I dare not come?" Su Qinghan replied coolly.

Her gaze fell upon the silk handkerchief in Jiang Lan's hand.

This fellow was wiping his hands again. If he disliked touching her so much, why had he touched her in the first place?

Jiang Lan smiled indifferently and continued gazing up at the moon.

Su Qinghan watched him with slight surprise, then lifted her face as well, looking toward the bright moon hanging high in the deep Sky Vault.

The night breeze swept past, stirring several strands of black hair at her forehead. She, too, gradually seemed to lose herself in thought.

"Miss Su, please sit."

Whether half a moment had passed or only an instant, Jiang Lan's voice interrupted Su Qinghan's thoughts.

She was surprised that Jiang Lan had changed his earlier frivolous form of address. "Miss Su" sounded somewhat solemn instead...

Su Qinghan obediently sat down and watched as Jiang Lan personally filled the wine cup before her.

Had it been anyone else, they would likely have felt flattered beyond measure. But she was exceptionally calm at this moment, trying to guess Jiang Lan's intentions.

She even began to suspect whether, just as he had said during the day, he had poisoned the wine.

"Don't worry, it isn't poisoned." Jiang Lan sighed faintly, looking as though he knew exactly what she was thinking and found it slightly troublesome.

Winning the Female Protagonist's heart wouldn't work through force alone.

Jiang Lan had no doubt that with her temperament, before he could even entertain any ideas, she would sever her own heart meridians and die first.

At a time like this, did he still expect Su Qinghan to care about her family and relatives? She was the Female Protagonist, but she was no saint.

"I don't believe you."

Su Qinghan believed she had already seen Jiang Lan's shamelessness for what it was, so she did not believe a single word he said.

She still had the ability to take her own life now. Once she was poisoned unconscious, wouldn't she be completely at Jiang Lan's mercy?

He had said as much himself during the day.

"If you won't drink, then forget it. To have my good intentions misunderstood like this is rather saddening." Jiang Lan shook his head slightly and poured himself a drink.

Su Qinghan scoffed inwardly. She did not believe that nonsense at all.

A man's mouth was a lying ghost.

Especially a man like Jiang Lan—handsome, blessed with a fine appearance, born with an advantage over others.

Within the pavilion, Su Qinghan sat quietly, like flowers reflected by the water—pure and refined.

Jiang Lan stopped paying her any mind, drinking cup after cup. By the end, even Su Qinghan began to wonder whether he had really called her here just to admire the moon with him.

At the banquet, before so many people, he had not acted like this.

Yet now, alone with her beneath the deep night, he had turned into a saintly gentleman like Liu Xiahui.

"Miss Su, are you wondering why I'm not getting handsy with you at a time like this instead?"

As Su Qinghan puzzled over it, Jiang Lan's leisurely, smiling voice suddenly rang out.

"Mm." Though the phrasing made her somewhat embarrassed and annoyed, she still nodded lightly.

"Naturally, it is to make Miss Su feel torn between gain and loss, stir your curiosity toward me, and then have you fall captive to me step by step..."

Jiang Lan smiled faintly, his tone incomparably sincere.

Su Qinghan froze, then came to her senses. Her red lips parted slightly as she spat out two words. "Shameless."

Naturally, she did not believe him. He was clearly teasing her—did he really take her for some brainless ordinary woman?